(China
National Radio) Public Opinion Polls In Jiangsu Province Were
Rigged With Standard Answers. February 11, 2009.

A few days ago, there was a random telephone
survey of residents in the Qidong, Haimen, Tongzhou and other districts of
Nantong city in Jiangsu province. The purpose was to determine the
prosperity level of the people and to listen to their feedback. Local
cadres asked the interviewees to use previously distributed standard answers.
Many elementary and secondary schools even had a day off so that the students
can memorize the answers and "assist" their parents to deal with the telephone
poll. Our in-depth investigation showed that this brazenly rigged public
opinion poll was the work of certain individual cadres who wanted to show that
the people have reached the prosperity target goals.

At the Seventeenth Communist Party Congress,
the goal was bring about a fully prosperous society. Jiangsu province
proposed a high-level of prosperity in which the masses will benefit and
accept. Public opinion polling was part of this process, whereby a
county/city needs more than 60% agreement from the public before it can be
declared as reaching the full prosperity standard. In late 2008, Qidong
city under Nantong city attained a 94.8% approval rate in the random telephone
poll conducted by the Jiangsu province Bureau of Statistics. However,
many local villagers told our reporter differently:

Village 1: The wholis thing was faked!
It was all faked in our village! It was certainly faked!

Village 2: This is using money to buy lies.

At many village homes, the reporter could see
the survey printed and distributed by the Full Prosperous Society workgroup in
Qidong city. This nicely printed survey questionnaire has ten questions
for which standard answers were provided. No matter what their actual
annual income is, the rural villagers need to say 8,500 yuan while city
dwellers are to answer 16,500 yuan. No matter whether they have social
insurance or not, they must say they do; no matter whether they are satisfied
with their residences, roads or environment, they must answer yes.

Reporter: Who gave you this leaflet?

Villager: The village brigade leader.

Reporter: When was it distributed?

Villager: It was distributed before the
survey took place. This leaflet was distributed to great fanfare.
Several meetings were held to tell us that the provincial government will be
holding a telephone sample survey and we must answer according to what is in
the leaflet and we will be paid 50 yuan. At the last moment, the
incentive was raised to 200 yuan plus the 144 yuan monthly telephone fee.

Reporter: So the total incentive amounted to
more than 300 yuan.

Villager: On day 15 of the month, the
town government held a meeting and assign the cadres to cover all the
villagers.

Reporter: Do you think that your family net
income is significantly different from the desired answer of 8,500 yuan?

Villager: That's impossible. We have
not attained prosperity yet. Where do we get 8,500 yuan in net income?
This is a lie.

Reporter: Are you satisfied with your
environment?

Villager: Definitely not satisfied.

Reporter: But you are asked to say that you
are satisfied.

Villager: Yes, we were asked to say that we
are satisfied! This is fake! This is so fake!

According to the villagers, three or four
meetings were held in the town/village in order to assure that the prosperity
standards are attained. The cadres visited all the households with
telephones in order to mobilize the people and ensure that they won't say the
wrong things during the interviews. Villagers who say the right thing
according to the standard answers received more than 100 yuan or even as much
as 1,000 yuan. The local elementary and secondary schools had a day off.
The teachers made the students recite the answers and post the leaflet next to
the telephone in order to assist their parents.

Reporter: Little friend, did you get a day
off?

Schoolchild: I got a day off.

Reporter: Why did you get a day off?

Schoolchild: In order to answer the above
questions.

Reporter: What did you do?

Schoolchild: They did not call our home.

Reporter: If they did call, what did the
teacher tell you to do?

Schoolchild: Say according to what was
printed there.

During the interviews, the villagers said
that while their lives have improved over the past few years, many families
have not yet reached the prosperity standards. The villagers are angry
over the brazen fakery. Yet, the local leaders are very happy with the
results of the prosperity survey.

Qidong city party secretary Sun Jianhua: We
are in the process of constructing a full prosperous society. We pay
special attention to the satisfaction level of the people towards the work of
the government and the Party. Last year, a sample survey showed that the
satisfaction level of the people of Qidong about the level of prosperity was
94.8%. This is the highest level of satisfaction among all of the
prosperous counties/cities in Jiangsu province. We say three things:
there is no exaggeration; the people are actually benefitting; and the people
are in agreement. We have attained all twenty-five prosperity
indicators. The home telephone numbers and mobile telephone numbers of
all homes were given to the Bureau of Statistics which took a random sample to
poll. This survey showed that the people are in agreement.

Reporter: What happens if the people are not
in agreement?

Secretary Sun: That it won't pass.

Reporter: Pass what?

Secretary Sun: We won't pass as having
attained full prosperity. That is to say, we have not reached the level
of prosperity.

Reporter: This means that this is a concrete
indicator that must be attained?

Secretary Sun: If the people don't agree,
then what is the use even if your other indicators are high? Right?
The people need to actually experience and feel the full prosperity.

The reporter went through Haimen, Tongzhou
and a dozen towns and villages in Nantong city, and found that the open fakery
followed the same modus operandi: standard answers were distributed, students
were given the day off, cash rewards were given and the cadres visited every
home. The reporter saw a document about the list of villagers (including
their names and telephone numbers) that a village brigade leader was
responsible for. The brigade leader was charged by his supervisor to
ensure that there are no problems during the telephone interviews.

Village brigade leader: There was a town
meeting where we were asked to visit every family in order to promote this.
They have to say nice things in accordance with the standard answers. A
town vice-mayor pounded on the desk and said: "You better all say nice things.
I will know who didn't!"

Villager: They were using a threatening
style. You must say nice things. If you don't say nice things, I
know who you are.

The public fakery by individual cadres in
Qidong, Haimen and Tongzhou is having a bad impact among the masses. At
the Tongzhou city government website, the reporter saw a work bulletin that
said: The city Party and government is asking all city cadres to go down to
the villagers to promote the prosperity movement. The cadres from the
Population Planning Department went down to the villages and communicated with
every family that has a telephone. They made purposeful attempts to
convince those farmers who hold different views. The cadres also sought
to comfort those families which are in hardship. A physically
handicapped couple took the incentive and said: "If the pollsters call my
home, I will definitely say that I am doing well just so everybody can be
satisfied!"

The letter from Tongzhou city Liuqiao town to
the town folks contain this sentence: "The prosperity survey is an evaluation
of the economic construction, and it is also a survey of the overall quality
of each Liuqiao resident."

In Qidong, Haimen and Tongzhou, many
Communist Party members were pained by the open fakery. A veteran Party
member with more than 30 years of membership told us: "Bullshit! Things
are not as good as this! But if you tell the truth, they will criticize
you; if you lie, they will reward you with money."

It is a very good thing to go amongst the
people, listen to their voices and value their level of satisfaction.
But if public opinion is misrepresented in order to get political
accomplishments, then it can only damage the image of the government and Party
among the people. When the cadres ask the masses to prevaricate and the
teachers teach the students to lie, a serious public opinion poll has turned
into a farce that we should be concerned about.